Halloween
by VirtualDraconium
Summary: It’s Halloween in Winchester, and of course the kids at Whammy’s have to celebrate it. Just a fluffy little one-shot starring L, B and A.


**A/N:** As promised to the lovely readers of my story His Father's Eyes, I present a Halloween story starring A, B and L, very originally named Halloween, because I couldn't think of a better title. They are the same as I'm writing them in that, and yes, this can be seen as a bonus chapter for it, but it works just as well as a one-shot for Halloween. And I post it now, because technically it's Halloween here now, since it's just gone midnight. Oh, and if you haven't read my story and you enjoy this, please go take a look! If you haven't read it, here's a note on the characters ages; L is 11, B is 7 and A is nearly 10.

Guess who I met on Wednesday! Neil Gaiman! I went to his talk/signing in Manchester and it was great. He signed all my books, and my notebook (so now I have to write only good stuff in it- no course related stuff). The person in front of me got her death note bag signed by him, and I was very jealous.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Death Note or Another Note, or any of the characters within them; I'm just using them for a little Halloween fun!

* * *

It was the 31st of October, and all the children at Whammy's House were excited, but none seemingly more so than L. he and the other two genius prodigies lined up to succeed were sitting at separate table to the more run of the mill orphans that were currently housed there, and the genius detective was bouncing up and down in his seat in anticipation. They'd just finished their dinner, and Watari had left the room, asking them to wait here for a couple of minutes whilst he went and fetched something. From the look on his face, the other two had known L knew what it was, but had no idea themselves.

Eventually Watari re-entered the room carrying a decadent sponge cake, beautifully iced and with eleven candles rimming the outer edge. The young detective beamed up at the older man, then focused on the cake with a predatory expression, as if he were about to pounce on it. Beyond chuckled slightly to himself. If there was just one thing he had learnt during the past few months at Whammy's, it was 'L likes cake. Do not get between L and cake; it will not be good for your health'.

Watari opened his mouth as if he were going to ask the other two to sing happy birthday, but L cut him off by holding up his hand.

"No singing… just candles, and then I get to eat it."

Watari nodded and set the cake down in front of the detective, who hurriedly blew out all of the candles in one breath, and then gestured Watari to hurry up and cut the cake.

As the cake was cut, B turned to wish L a happy birthday, and ask why he was celebrating, since wasn't his birthday supposed to be a secret. L whispered back that he'd told Watari that he wouldn't reveal his conclusion to the latest case unless Watari conceded to his demands of a birthday cake and to go trick-or-treating. B giggled, and A looked shocked that L would make such a threat.

Watari handed each of the three orphans a slice of cake. A big slice to L, a medium slice for B and a small slice for A who wasn't a big fan of cake.

"Are we going trick-or treating then?" asked B.

L nodded furiously through a mouthful of cake, his eyes glowing at the thought of all that prospective sugar he would receive by the end of the evening.

* * *

The three orphans had already got sort-of costumes for Halloween as the rest of the orphanage had been planning a party. But given the somewhat anti-social nature of the three of them, trick-or-treating was a much preferred alternative to spending time with the rest of the orphanage's noisy inhabitants. Plus of course L got more sweets, which made him happy, which made everyone happier because he wasn't as bossy and demanding when placated with sugar.

Beyond had never been trick-or-treating before. His mother had said he was too young, and that it wasn't safe, and had never taken him no matter how much he had begged. So, understandably, he was very excited.

A, who had only eaten his cake earlier out of politeness, was not bothered about the sweets, but merely seemed content with the excuse to get out of the orphanage for a bit.

L's attitude… well, anyone who knew L could have guessed his attitude. He was practically bouncing off of the walls because of Watari's promise to take them out, and he hadn't even had any sugar yet.

The three of them relocated to their rooms to put on their costumes.

B had chosen to have a snack as he put his costume on, and as a result, had managed to spill some of the sticky red substance onto his costume. He dithered for a moment over whether to change out of the now jam-stained shirt, but then decided that, actually, he quite liked the effect. Jam, like blood, was red, and he was going out as a vampire, so really it just enhanced his costume. He swept a black cloak over his shoulders and admired his reflection. _Very scary_, he assured himself, and his blood-red eyes just added to the effect.

Beyond made his way back down to the hallway, where he was met with an amusing sight. L, seemingly dressed in his usual casual attire, just with a mask on one side of his head, was attempting to pull something off of A's head. A was dressed as a ghost. His simple outfit consisted of a white sheet with a slit cut in to poke his head through, and the bottom edges had been mutilated with scissors to give a tattered look. A similar treatment had been performed on what A was wearing on his head. It was a pillowcase, B observed. It had also been attacked with scissors, creating holes for A to see out of, and again the tattering of the bottom edge.

L didn't seem to approve of A's choice of head-wear, or perhaps he wanted it for himself. Either way, he finally succeeded in ripping it off of the younger boy's head.

A pouted. He'd painted black rings around his eyes to make them stand out from within his mask, but now that they were combined with his pale skin and thanks to L's help, messed up fair hair, he managed to look more ghostly than he had with his head piece.

A tried to snatch that part of his costumed back out of L's grasp, but the detective skittered away across the hall, whilst pulling something out of the pocket of his baggy jeans. He fiddled around for a couple of moments and then brandished the pillowcase.

"What did you do to my costume?!" demanded A, distraught.

"I stapled the eyeholes shut." said L in his usual matter of fact tone.

"Why?"

"Because a bag with holes in will leak. And I don't want to lose any of the sweets I'm collecting in it."

A looked at L in shock. He knew the boy was used to getting his own way, but this was ridiculous.

B sidled up to him. "Don't worry; you look better without it anyway."

"I do?" said A, jumping slightly as B materialised behind him. "But, that's not the point."

"I know," said B smiling faintly, "but there's no point complaining about it. He's Watari's favourite after all." B paused, and A smiled, a very short lasting smile that was killed by B's next remark. "But he's right. We _do_ need something to carry the sweets in."

Watari appeared in the hallway. Like his charges he was dressed up. He was wearing a big coat with the collar turned up and a hat with the brim turned down over his face. He was doing a very good job of looking like a secret agent.

"Wow!" said L, going up to Watari to admire his costume. "I should totally get you to wear that whenever you go outside."

"You don't seem to have put much effort into your costume."

"Hey, I made this myself. It's to keep my identity secret whilst we're out tonight." He pulled the mask down over his face, and crossed his arms, demanding approval from the older man. The mask was sort of oval in shape, but the edges were quite jagged as L had rushed with the scissors, and two small eyeholes had been hacked out in the right place, and L had coloured round them with rough black circles. There was another black circle for a nose, and then w horizontal line for a mouth. It was probably the laziest job L had ever done.

"Yes L, it's such a brilliant design. It's a panda right?"

"No! It's a skull. You should have known. Who goes as a panda for Halloween."

"Oh yes, I see now." Said Watari, humouring the boy. If only he would hold his pencils properly, his drawing ability would be better. But no, he insisted on holding objects delicately at their tips, and as a result his drawing was poor, although his handwriting was slowly improving as his fingertips got stronger.

Seemingly satisfied L relaxed his pose. His voice took on a note of impatience. "Are we going now Watari? I don't want to miss out on the good stuff."

Watari nodded and strode towards the door and the three orphans followed out behind him.

* * *

Trick or treating was _fun_, B decided as they departed yet another house with more sweets in their 'bag' that they were allowing L to hold, since they had tried and failed to extract the sweets container from his grasp. It was fun spotting all the other groups of children and identifying their costumes. It was fun wandering along the streets and spotting the grinning pumpkins in the windows of houses, inviting them forwards to collect the sugary treats that were on offer. It was fun, spending time with L and A, that wasn't some form of intellectual pursuit.

What had been particularly fun, was when a woman at one house had demanded some form of 'trick' from them before she would hand over the sweets. The three had huddled together to try to come up with something, as they hadn't thought about this aspect of trick-or-treating before hand. L had suggested that he could multiply any two numbers together, or find a square root or something. And then A had pointed out that it was Halloween, and they were supposed to be doing something _scary_. And B had grinned and said he knew what to do.

He'd turned and faced the woman, looking at the point above her head where the red letters and numbers twinkled their constant reminder of mortality towards him. And still staring at that point above her head with a creepy expression on his face he'd said "I can tell you when you're going to die." And she had said that yes that sounded like a good trick, and he'd told her the date and time. And suitably disturbed by the supposed trick, and perhaps shaken by the accuracy although she wouldn't know it true, the woman handed them a large amount of sweets and scuttled back inside.

L had applauded B for getting them such a quantity of sugar in one go, and A had questioned how he'd thought of the trick, and how he'd worked out a date.

B just shrugged. Then paused for a moment after thinking of something intelligent to say. "Well, she was in her mid-forties and clearly a smoker. So the probability of her getting cancer soon, assuming she's been smoking for a long while, is fairly high. So that's why I only gave her five and a half years. Plus it's spookier if it's not a long time away, but if it was too soon she'd have known with no uncertainty that I was making it up. So a mid-range time is more believable so therefore creepier. And thus we got more sweets."

L beamed at B. "B, you're a genius. Well… of course you a genius, you wouldn't be my potential successor if you weren't, but that was particularly smart." He paused to rummage through the bad of sweets, pulling out a red lolly and starting to unwrap it. "I want to try it at the next house!"

L, of course, just considered it a ruse to get more sweets. And he followed B's made-up explanation of the number he'd given, taking a few seconds to analyse the person who opened the door, and then telling them that they would die on such and such a date. B covered his mouth with the back of his hand as L did so. He didn't want to laugh, but L's guess was so far wrong. And it wasn't funny, really it wasn't because this person was going to die a short time from now, probably in an accident of some sort, and that wasn't funny at all. But B was used to seeing things like this by now. He supposed knowing when people would die was something he'd gotten used to over the past few months since his mother's death. These small everyday walking tragedies were just that, everyday, mundane. He didn't let them get to him any more. Especially spending every day in A's presence, knowing that he in particular would be dying very young, before his detective career had started.

L poked B. "Look B, that was a great trick, they gave me loads of stuff. But I think you did it better. Maybe it's because you're younger?"

Beyond thought it was just because he was naturally more unnerving, with his unnatural eye colour and his slight aura of otherworldliness. And there was the fact that L's mask, which had been a pretty poor excuse for a costume in the first place, was once again sitting lopsided on the side of his head, as he'd moved it out of the way so he could put the lolly in his mouth. It made him look even more non-threatening.

They visited a few more houses, and both L and A tried B's trick a couple of times, and he did it once more himself, even though he felt bad about telling people when they would die. Normally it would have been completely taboo for him. Maybe it was special because it was Halloween? And it helped that no one would believe him.

He faltered suddenly when A asked him to predict his and L's deaths. He really didn't want to say. He fidgeted guiltily for a minute, and then told an outright lie, telling them both that they would both die when they were very old.

L told him off, because predicting them deaths from old age wasn't very creepy, but B didn't care. He refused to say A's death day out loud. L and A were genius's, they'd remember the date he said, even if it was a joke, that was just how their memories worked. And besides, saying their death days out loud would make them more real, and he really didn't want that. They were sort of his new family. He didn't really like to think about them dying, despite the constant reminders that it was inevitable, and that this was when it would be.

Then Watari came over and told them that it was getting late, and they should head back to the orphanage. And he extracted the bag of sweets from L, who surrendered it reluctantly. Then they got back into the car and went home. Watari took them into the kitchen, and divided their horde into three piles, and swept each into a plastic bag. He handed each of the children their bag, told them not to eat too much tonight and then ushered them upstairs to bed. As they went upstairs A handed his bag of sweets to L, since he didn't want it. And then he went to wipe the make up off of his face. B scurried away as well. He may have idolised L, but he was developing a sweet tooth that nearly equalled L's, and he didn't want L to convince him that giving L the sweets would be for the world's greater good. Because L was very good at getting what he wanted, and B didn't want to give him the opportunity.

He hid the sweets in his sock drawer; the one place L would never look if he went on a sugar-hunting spree. Then he climbed into bed, smiling happily, feeling very content, looking forward to further celebrations with this new family of his.

* * *

**A/N:** Yes that last line is a hint. If I get lots of nice feedback, I might write a second one-shot starring these three for Christmas. So if you want more, please review!


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